Local Poverty and Resistance

Editors Note: Mr. Jose Villarreal is one of several power-FUL PNNPlantation prison correspondents. As currently and formerly incarcerated poor and indigenous peoples in struggle and resistance with all plantation systems in Amerikkka, POOR Magazine stands in solidarity with all folks on the other side of the razor wire plantation.

There have been at least two "frets" in San Francisco in the past few months. A fret is where police go out in the poor neighborhoods – SOMA, the Tenderloin – and stop anyone who looks poor and/or houseless.

Raymond Eacret, 34 yrs old, a proud Yurok Tribal Member from Trinidad Rancheria, of Eureka, CA, died “in custody” in the Humboldt County Correctional Center (Jail) on Friday, June 26, 2015. Raymond was being held on a misdemeanor charge and was due to be released that evening. Something went horribly wrong just hours after his mother, Sheila Eacret, received the message telling her 'not to worry and charges were dropped,' that her son was being released around dinner time, 4pm in fact, that very day.

On November 3rd, the people of San Francisco voted to elect a Mayor. A number of candidates stood to oppose the incumbent Mayor Ed Lee. In the weeks preceding the vote Bay Area publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle and the SF Examiner, and international publications like the New York Times, largely ignored campaigns run by opposition candidates.

"One of the main issues in life I think we should be paying attention to is the mental destruction of Black (so-called African American) culture. Life itself is a whole different experience in the eyes of the inner city Black youth. The problem is not money, nor is the problem "education". The problem is the lack of culture. Now in these times the majority of Black people adapt to life, making their own culture. These cultures deprive from the mental progression of Black youth, leaving them in a state of immaturity.

The first time i saw James Smith he was with his mother Teresa at a community event and it was immediately obvious that James was mentally disabled. The look on his face is childlike, there is nothing threatening in his appearance or his movements. Unless you are a police officer. Then James black skin may cause you to view as thuggish what less biased individuals would consider childlike innocence.

It was a hot day and me and Deecolonize Academy went to a rally at City Hall. It was about the Beast on Bryant st.,RAD,Super-sizing SOMA and the Monster in the Mission. My class mates were all interviewing different leaders in all of these struggles.